Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday it’s time for Republicans to ditch their D.C.-centric mindset and look beyond the Beltway for the next generation of leaders and solutions, saying the party must surmount the past four years of “toxic politics.”
Mr. Hogan penned an op-ed for USA Today and was slated to speak later Monday at the Reagan Foundation about his vision for the GOP as it begins to take stock of a future without a Democrat in the White House.
Though he didn’t mention President Trump by name, he compared the president’s apparent loss in the elections to the GOP wipeout after Watergate, but also said just like Ronald Reagan revived the party in 1980, so Republicans can “come back stronger than ever” — if they look outside of Washington.
“Many Republicans in Washington want to return to the way things were before 2016, while others want to proceed as if this election never happened. This is a false choice,” he said.
Mr. Hogan, who previously had said he wrote in Reagan on his ballot for president this year, struggled to grapple with the legacy of Mr. Trump, who was the ultimate outside-the-Beltway figure.
The governor celebrated GOP gains among Black and Hispanic voters this year, who he said were “turned off by a toxic brew of elitism and political correctness run amok on the far-left.”
“But we also don’t need and can’t afford any more of the division and toxic politics we’ve seen these last four years,” the governor wrote.
He said the answers lie with reaching the “exhausted majority,” or two-thirds of Americans he said feel ignored by Washington — a group Mr. Trump reached — but are also fed up with “angry politics.”
“They want a government that protects the vulnerable, but doesn’t dictate how we live our lives,” Mr. Hogan said. “They want a strong America that stands for its allies, freedom and human dignity around the world, but doesn’t take for granted the sacrifices required for it. They want to stand with their neighbors and feel proud of their country.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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